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6/8/2010 4:58PM

Who is Considered Poor in India?

Millions of destititute Indian families don't qualify for food subsidies or housing assistance, because they are not officially considered poor. Now the government is reassessing its poverty levels. WSJ's Amol Sharma reports.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

I ... rummage Even can always feed his family of a ... as a share Cropper in love were ... a village in India's northern state of the position ... he takes home a stash of week after the annual harvest ... could only last three months ... to help make ends meet Ron Geez and earns about fifteen dollars a month doing odd jobs ... his eldest son works in the field during growing season ... instead of going to school ... so he can help support the family ... but their earnings don't go very far ... call me a mop the situation has been so bad with my family that sometimes my mother has to go around the election date through what has been thrown out to get its greens to eat ... the government provides food subsidies to millions of four Indian households ... but many of micron Cubans family ... don't qualify ... because they aren't officially considered for ... now India is embarking on a major reassessment of its poverty levels ... the effort could greatly increase the number of people who were designated as port ... and are therefore eligible for government ration cards ... Doce cards or a passport to more than two dozen welfare programs ... including health insurance housing and free electricity ... until now getting one hasn't been easy ... even for families and their meanings ... India's central government gives each state a limit on how many people they can officially declare sport ... and hand out ration cards to ... a report is based on a national poverty estimate ... that figure is currently about three hundred million ... but the government says it intends to increase by more than a hundred million ... to give states more Hasbro ... to propose new estimate is based on an income thresholds of about ten dollars per person per month in Bir Larian's ... in about thirteen dollars in savings ... many experts say even the higher estimate more accurately represent the number of foreign India ... the government is trying to adjust the poverty rate ... as it puts together legislation in coming months to overhaul the food subsidy system ... the next and more controversial step is figuring out which households deserve ration cards a process that could take more than a year ... similar senses efforts in the past been criticised ... the government is down a door to door survey in parts of rural India to identify for Houssels ... the villages and mile course such an official census never happen here ... instead they say village elders ... get together and decide amongst themselves arbitrarily ... which households to qualify for action ... even in areas where the census has happened ... the results of been disputed ... since income is tough to measure accurately in a cash based economy ... households have been ranked based on whether they have items like ceiling fans ... toilets and scooters ... in some states New ration cards are issued until others are cancelled ... muddling the numbers even further ... so one ... of my crazy with boredom and saw my cumbersome job ... of that there ... is a beautiful expires on the family's normal ... on the candy kisses off with all due to ... the list ... of the sixty families in all core ... Brumby's is the only ones quarter ration card ... she got in ten years ago when another division up or die ... there was no ration cards in the difficult for me ... has made life easy ... before ... the kids have to go from one end of each to the oven and bake of the ... typical below poverty line household spends about four dollars a month on a ration ... that includes about twenty five kilograms of rice ... and ten kilograms of we ... the subsidies make a huge difference for families who otherwise would have to go to a nearby market ... and pay about twice as much to say my ... in this moment not know ... what their traditions capital ... not one of the one hundred families who live here as the ration card ... in most years today don't ever expect to get one ... residents don't have electricity or toilets and they have to beg for water from nearby government buildings ... Ulema Nisha can only afford to feed her five children one meal a day ... on the income her husband Aaron selling ... drugs ... about a dollar per day ... what's more they've gone into about eighteen hundred dollars in debt ... to pay for the medical bills of their oldest son ... who was struck with the disease it's taken away is basic motor functions ... but the family isn't listed as a below poverty line household in the government's official records ... but I have no food we have no water ... I feel so bad in Pooler ... are we going to have to live like this all our minds ... for now ... a ration card seems like a distant dream ... for all the MoneyShow and millions of other Indians ... in a book or probation India this is a mole Sharma for The Wall Street Journal ... the ...